25 June 2004

Waitakere helps to buy conservation island

Waitakere City Council will contribute $37,273 to the purchase of Kaikoura Island in the Hauraki Gulf, joining five other councils in the Auckland area to help bring the island into public ownership.

The figure was agreed today during the Council's Annual Plan deliberations.

Last month, the 564 ha island was bought by the Government for $10.5m, with help from the ASB Trusts, to save it from falling into foreign hands.

The Auckland Regional Council contributed $250,000 and a further $250,000 is being shared by the region's city and district councils: Auckland, $82,817; Manukau $63,346, North Shore $41,027, Papakura $8,808, Rodney $16,729.

Each council's share is worked out on a population basis.

Waitakere's contribution to the island will come from savings made during this financial year: there will be no impact on rates from July 1.

Its future now assured as a wildlife sanctuary and educational facility, the island will be a home for endangered species struggling to survive on nearby Great Barrier Island.

Deputy Mayor and Chair of the Council's City Development Committee Carolynne Stone says that the island is a magnificent asset for the people of Waitakere and the greater Auckland region.

"Waitakere is part of a national and regionally-funded initiative to provide an opportunity to create a sanctuary, and an educational facility for the City's youth to experience the wilderness," she says.

Kaikoura Island, the seventh largest in the Hauraki Gulf, will undergo similar pest eradication programmes to those used on the hugely successful conservation island Tiritiri Matangi.

ENDS

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